Kelly: Hey, GabeKelly: WAZZZAAAAP?Gabe: yo kellyGabe: yo dawgKelly: How are you doing todayGabe: not badGabe: pretty chillGabe: i am just chillaxing over hereKelly: That doesn’t sound too bad at allGabe: it’s very chillGabe: you?Kelly: I’m doing fine over here tooKelly: Just surfing the netGabe: oh that’s chillKelly: p. chillKelly: Except I just surfed onto some news that’s kind of ruining the chill vibeKelly: And I’d hate to spoil yours but I’d like to share it with someoneGabe: oh that is NOT chillKelly: Tell me about itKelly: So apparently Mark-Paul Gosselaar, star of the beloved Franklin & BashKelly: Is going around telling people thatKelly: If you can believe itKelly: Saved by the Bell was “not a great show”Kelly: ???????????????????????

Gabe: is he, kelly?Gabe: is he GOING AROUND TELLING PEOPLE?Gabe: “Hey, man!”Kelly:HE TOLD DAVE NEMETZ AT YAHOO TV SO I CAN ONLY IMAGINEGabe: man, mark paul gosselar dropping BOMBSKelly: He also said the writing is “kind of hokey”Gabe: WHAT?Gabe: it is very brave of himGabe: to finally admitGabe: that a show for childrenGabe: from 100 years agoGabe: did not have the BEST writing on televisionGabe: you know that guy just finished catching up on Breaking Bad and was likeGabe: now that i think about itGabe: there is room for a higher level of writing in televisionKelly: It’s brave, but also a little harsh for the rest of usKelly: Who were perfectly happy to live under the assumption that Saved by the BellKelly: was as good as it getsGabe: he’s totally harshing your chill vibesKelly: Harshing the S out of themKelly: Give me a break broKelly: Let me ENJOY the writing.Kelly: I haven’t felt this deflated since Blake Lively announced that Gossip Girl was not her best workGabe: you’ve had a tough weekKelly: I’m just tired all the time now.Gabe: you’re TOO chill if anything

Gabe: i like how that interview with gosselarGabe: doesn’t actually include the questions he was answeringGabe: so you have to make them up, which is always my favorite gameGabe: “Was Saved by the Bell a good show?”Gabe: “Was the writing good on it, or was the writing hokey?”Kelly: hahahKelly: “What do you think of the claims that saved by the bell was television’s best show with television’s best writing”Gabe: exactlyKelly: I’d rather think that he begins every Franklin & Bash press interview by stating that the difference between Saved by the Bell and Franklin & BashKelly: Is that Saved by the Bell was not a great showKelly: “Before you ask”Kelly: He also says that Saved by the Bell was almost canceled every seasonKelly: The Community of its day, probablyKelly: I’m not sure I was born when it was on TV but I bet it was like the Community of its dayGabe: DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THE DAN HARMON NEWS YOU KNOW I’M STILL WORKING THROUGH THATKelly: I’m so sorryKelly: That was totally careless of me and I really do apologizeKelly: I know it’s toughGabe: i feel likeGabe: everyone’s already forgottenGabe: on to something more important? LIKE WHAT?Kelly: Shh shhGabe: what if everyone forgot 9/11?Gabe: which we agreed to NEVER FORGET?Gabe: that’s what this is likeKelly: Everyone’s just trying to process it and deal with it in their own wayKelly: We have to healGabe: i feel like hardly anyone has evenGabe: drawn the entire cast as 8-bit videogame characters in Downton Abbey costumes for weeksKelly: I’m sure you’re wrong about that.

Gabe: first they came for the ASCII fan art and I blogged nothingKelly: I’m sure someone is drawing Troy and Abed as Walt and Jesse as dogs as we speakKelly: For a t-shirtKelly: And it says Barking Bad in the Community fontGabe: i just hope someone will make dolls that look like Jeff and Britta as Jaime and Cersei Lannister out of Mr. Potato Head dolls and sell them on etsy soonKelly: I hope someone will write a series of parody novellas based on Twilight except with Jeff and Britta, and that those parody novellas will be made into a feature film except the feature film is actually about the writer of the novellas and the writer is played by the dean in a wigGabe: i hope someone will make an oil painting of Troy and Abed in the Morning in the style of the Last Supper with all of the Dean’s different costumes and Chang as Mary Magdalene and a Dr. Who Dalek as the Da Vinci Code all of it in the style of Ren & StimpyKelly: I hope someone will make Community plush dolls in the style of Adventure Time and film a stop motion supercut of what abed’s best lines and jeff’s best burns would be if the gang were transported to occupy wall street AS the plush Adventure Time dollsGabe: i hope someone will make an instructional card for how to do Troy and Abed’s secret handshake in the style of an airplane safety guide where each panel is also a comic book that references Jeff’s backstory as a lawyer based on The Pelican BriefKelly: I hope someone cuts up different episodes so it seems like the cast is singing Kanye West’s “Monster” and then turns it into a choose-your-own-adventure style YouTube game co-created by the creator of The Emo Game

Gabe: i hope someone makes a shot-for-shot remake of teh Paintball episode but where each of the characters is played by a kitten with a broken leg in a cast wearing a cafepress t-shirt with Starburns’s face on it and under his face is a different expression from one of Judah Friedlander’s hats on 30 Rock and at the end of it all the credits are steampunk namesKelly: I hope someone finally figures out which red pandas they’d all be, if they were all red pandasGabe: i hope someone makes a supercut of every time Annie says “Jeff” in her whimpering voice but set to the BRAHHHM music from Inception and at the end of it we find out that the Internet never existed and everyone’s in mind jailKelly: I hope this is all a dream and when we wake up it’s 1990 and we wake up just in time for Saved by the Bell and then when we turn on the TV Saved by the Bell is on except the show runner is Dan HarmonGabe: BING BONG YOU’RE SAVED BY THE BELL

“Franklin and Bash was not a great show. The plots were formulaic. The jokes were telegraphed. If I’m honest, it was a paycheck. In fact, the only reason the show was cancelled in the ninth season was Breckin [Meyer] gained so much weight from his jelly donut habit that he had to get his foot amputated from diabetes.

Anyway, I don’t want to dwell on that. I’m here to promote my new show Nice Hitler, where I play an alternate universe Adolph Hitler who gets transported to our universe and has to combat some hilariously awkward social situations.” — Mark-Paul Gosselar — 2023

This was an awesome read, you guys. I watched my fair share of Saved By the Bell in its hour long block on TBS after school before the good shit like Animaniacs came on, but I’ve left that show right there and never gone back to it, and am annoyed by most if not all nostalgia anyone may have for the show. Suffice it to say, I was like, “Ugh, let’s get this over with. When will they mention his big cell phone, or how he can stop time or just, WHATEVER.”

Then you guys segue into tearing down the the MOST annoying thing right now– MASH-UPS. I don’t mind some mashing up of things. Everything in moderation. Key to life, I’m sure. People get inspired by all manner of things, and a certain ouroboros aspect is expected. BUT. AT THIS POINT IN TIME. Its tail the snake has eaten has come back out its own tail into negative space, following by its riblets and teeth and head, and I don’t know how the biology of all that works necessarily, but basically what I’m saying is the ouroboros is no longer an accurate description of what these mash ups are perpetuating.

The thing that bugs me the most are the t-shirts. They’re so lazy. They’re so just there to capitalize on recognizable imagery to make a quick buck with no credit given to the actual creators of the intellectual properties. It’s Calvin Pissing/Praying window stickers to the infinity power. “Hey, you know that shot of Calvin & Hobbes in the wagon? Let’s make a list of EVERY DUO we can think of: your Batman & Robins, your Walt & Jesses, your Troy & Abeds, and we’ll just, just, we’ll just FUCK OUT that image and put it all on shirts. Then we’ll do the Donkey Kong arcade game level with everything we can think of. Then we’ll etc etc etc.”

SO I guess what I’m saying is: I really liked where this Friendly Chat went! Keep up the good work.

What the hell? In wrote a comment out, and it refreshed the page, and now its gone. I pasted in what i wrote an it said ‘duplicate comment detected.’ I can’t even see my comment with an “awaiting moderation” tag.

What the hell? In wrote a comment out, and it refreshed the page, and now its gone. I pasted in what i wrote an it said ‘duplicate comment detected.’ I can’t even see my comment with an “awaiting moderation” tag.

So my roommate is all moved out and I was pleased as punch until this very moment because we used to read the friendly chats as a dialgoue where he was Gabe and I was Kelly and when I read this it made me laugh out loud and I had to call him on the phone on his new apartment so we could read it together.

I genuinely laughed so hard I cried at all the speculative Community fan-art suggestions . Congrats Gabe and Kelly.

Also, this- “I hope someone will write a series of parody novellas based on Twilight except with Jeff and Britta, and that those parody novellas will be made into a feature film except the feature film is actually about the writer of the novellas and the writer is played by the dean in a wig”- I would definitely go and see.

I watched my fair share of Saved By the Bell in its hour long block on TBS after school before the good shit like Animaniacs came on, but I’ve left that show right there and never gone back to it, and am annoyed by most if not all nostalgia anyone may have for the show. Suffice it to say, I was like, “Ugh, let’s get this over with. When will they mention his big cell phone, or how he can stop time or just, WHATEVER.”

Then you guys segue into tearing down the the MOST annoying thing right now– MASH-UPS. I don’t mind some mashing up of things. Everything in moderation. Key to life, I’m sure. People get inspired by all manner of things, and a certain ouroboros aspect is expected. BUT. AT THIS POINT IN TIME. Its tail the snake has eaten has come back out its own tail into negative space, following by its riblets and teeth and head, and I don’t know how the biology of all that works necessarily, but basically what I’m saying is the ouroboros is no longer an accurate description of what these mash ups are perpetuating.

The thing that bugs me the most are the t-shirts. They’re so lazy. They’re so just there to capitalize on recognizable imagery to make a quick buck with no credit given to the actual creators of the intellectual properties. It’s Calvin Pissing/Praying window stickers to the infinity power. “Hey, you know that shot of Calvin & Hobbes in the wagon? Let’s make a list of EVERY DUO we can think of: your Batman & Robins, your Walt & Jesses, your Troy & Abeds, and we’ll just, just, we’ll just FUCK OUT that image and put it all on shirts. Then we’ll do the Donkey Kong arcade game level with everything we can think of. Then we’ll etc etc etc.”

SO I guess what I’m saying is: I really liked where this Friendly Chat went! Keep up the good work.

Harmon’s dismissal genuinely does upset me as much as something like that can to a person who generally has his priorities in line. I treasure Community. I think what it’s done for the sitcom is immeasurable and will likely not be matched for a long time.

It’s the easiest thing in the world to scoff at the different tropes the show explores each week, but these are means to an end. To me, each season is like an amazing band that covers a diversity of genres without deviating from a singular, definitive voice in the songwriting. But that’s the surface. This great band has a lyricist, and that’s Dan Harmon. The characters are his lyrics, and they’ve been telling a story for the last three albums. Sure, the compositions are getting flashier but the content is consistent.

Look at Chang. I’ve talked with a few people who think that Chang is a total one-note joke as a character now, i.e. he’s just crazy for crazy’s sake, there’s no motivation for his power grab. These people haven’t been paying attention, or they’re full of shit.

Chang already started as a wildly eccentric, slightly disturbing figure. He screamed at students, touched them inappropriately, etc. What we didn’t know then is that Chang, like Jeff, had faked his credentials and was living a lie. What’s happened since then? He was found out, lost his job, was kicked out of his home due to one-night-stand he didn’t remember, his wife left him, he was made homeless due to his unemployable status, denied of even partial custody of the child which may his as the result of said one-night-stand and ends up living in the air vents of a community college for a significant amount of time.

On top of this, the only acceptance he desperately clings to is with the now infamous, popular clique who is due in part to his downfall. He seeks nothing but love and acceptance and is denied at every turn. So he seeks power, revenge and validity through means of his job as a security guard.

He is an overwhelmingly tragic character, a villain sure, but one with depth. Yet, Harmon never bashed you over the head with it. I could be wrong, but I think Harmon said one of his goals was to make each character seem as if they could carry they’re own show. Hence, “Community”. The show gets richer and richer each season, and it’s telling a subtle story of flawed characters finding strength in, yeah, community (don’t judge me).

How can you expect two people who have never worked on the show to come in and continue a multi-layered story on this level? It’s gonna be a disaster and a bitter end to one of the best sitcoms of all time. It’ll be like having the most amazing meal and then your last bite is pubic hair that tastes sorta like what you were eating. Say what you will about the initial premature Arrested Development-cancellation, at FOX didn’t half-assedly order a fourth season but yanked Mitch Hurwitz.

This was an awesome read, you guys. I watched my fair share of Saved By the Bell in its hour long block on TBS after school before the good shit like Animaniacs came on, but I’ve left that show right there and never gone back to it, and am annoyed by most if not all nostalgia anyone may have for the show. Suffice it to say, I was like, “Ugh, let’s get this over with. When will they mention his big cell phone, or how he can stop time or just, WHATEVER.”

Then you guys segue into tearing down the the MOST annoying thing right now– MASH-UPS. I don’t mind some mashing up of things. Everything in moderation. Key to life, I’m sure. People get inspired by all manner of things, and a certain ouroboros aspect is expected. BUT. AT THIS POINT IN TIME. Its tail the snake has eaten has come back out its own tail into negative space, following by its riblets and teeth and head, and I don’t know how the biology of all that works necessarily, but basically what I’m saying is the ouroboros is no longer an accurate description of what these mash ups are perpetuating.

Look, I understand what you’re saying about pop culture mashups. I couldn’t care either way, but I get your point. But I don’t understand your need to continually piss all over those of us who are truly upset about the situation (and I’d like to point out that the only one comparing it to 9/11 is you, sir). Community stood for some amazing, positive things (diversity, uniqueness, acceptance, intelligence, hilarity, purely great fucking television) that I would love to see reflected more in pop culture and the world at large, and the people who just want to keep making Two And A Half Men Starring Ashton Kutcher took that away from us. That seemed to me like something Videogum would have a problem with, but it turns out your problem is with those of us who really care. This isn’t about coddling Dan Harmon’s ego because he’s a celebrity. It’s about the big people totally fucking over the little people…and you making fun of the little people for being sad, or for continuing to talk about the ramifications of this decision for the future of television. Which makes me even more sad. I love you guys. But I love Community more.

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